As electronic copiers have evolved, they have been improved with a wide range of image enhancement and image manipulation capabilities that save time and cost while providing versatile and complex features.
One feature that is particularly useful is the incorporation of customized images such as, for example, letterheads or logos, of a relatively small area, into original images scanned from an original document and then copied (one or multiple times) onto plain paper.
Initially, logos were added using rudimentary, manually realized, cut and paste techniques, or by ordering the service from an expensive specialized print shop. Currently, however, sophisticated electronic reprographic (ER) systems, such as the Docutech family of products by Xerox Corporation, allow the user to save entire document images and enhance them in myriad ways. Some of the features include adding image data, highlight color, cut and paste features, etc. These systems, however, are very expensive and often provide more features than required in a small office environment. A more cost effective approach for small offices is the use of lower capacity, lower complexity and lower cost reprographic systems. Among these systems is the 5775 family of color copiers by Xerox Corporation. These copiers provide some of the capabilities of high-end copiers without the associated costs. In particular, lower cost systems such as the 5775 have a limited memory capacity such that an entire page image cannot be stored (and thus cannot be manipulated) as is done in higher end systems such as Docutech. Instead, as an original image is being read by a RIS, the data representative of a small portion of the document image is temporarily stored, and then processed prior to being supplied to a print engine (such as a ROS) for use in forming a latent image on a photoreceptor. That is, as the original document is being scanned with the RIS, the ROS receives data representative of the image from an earlier scanned portion of the same original document. This common architecture/process does not require large amounts of memory and its associated costs.
One of the features scoped in the initial design of the 5775 family of copiers is the ability to print a prepackaged electronically stored logo on a portion of a copy sheet as it is being printed. Basically, the logo feature allows the user to scan an original document having a document image that has no logo or letterhead, and then print the document image on a copy sheet with a superimposed logo or letterhead by electronically manipulating the scanned document image to add the previously stored logo or letterhead image thereto. The logo feature allows the user to place customized images of a relatively small area over original images in order to print letterheads or logos on plain paper. The 5775 copiers implement the logo feature using a video read only memory (ROM) chip that is installed inside the copier. However, due to the limited memory capacity of the ROM, this approach forces the user to purchase, and have custom burned, a ROM chip for each custom image he wants to use. In addition, in order to switch images, one ROM chip must be removed and another one installed. These limitations are both expensive and time consuming.
The present invention enables any user of a digital copier to store and retrieve small, logo type video patterns. Logo images can be input using the copier RIS and stored for future use, or can be input, for example, from an external source such as a PC (personal computer). Preferably, multiple logo images can be stored on a small size storage medium in the copier. Moreover, the present invention will provide less expensive copiers with some of the flexibility of the larger, expensive high-end ER (Electronic Reprographic) systems, without the associated costs.